MAYER WAKEFIELD applauds Rosamund Pike’s punchy and tragic portrayal of a multi-tasking mother and high court judge
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Graham Parker, Union Chapel London/Touring
Acoustic set lacks essence of a great body of work
Nothing needs fixing: Graham Parker
FIONA O CONNOR recommends an unflinching depiction of child sexual abuse and its aftershocks, set in a working-class Liverpool family
New releases from Paul Weller, Wet Leg, and Dino Saluzzi
PAUL DONOVAN relishes the spectacle of a 1950s detective in pursuit of a 500-year-old murder mystery
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
OFTEN an “unplugged” session by an artist reveals an extra dimension to their music, stripping it down to essential components and revealing hitherto unconsidered depths.
Not so, it seems, with Graham Parker. Solo, with only an acoustic or electric guitar as accompaniment, he stands somewhat naked in the spotlight, unable to reinterpret his work in a way that does it full justice.
Few of the 19 songs he delivers to an attentive and supportive audience sound as good as the originals and, more disconcertingly, many of them — even classics such as Howlin’ Wind and White Honey — feel as if they have lost their very essence.
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